Plan to Plan

Planning and great execution make the difference both in stupid games and in the real world of business. Over and over our clients demonstrate the power of what Dwight Eisenhower said: “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Stupid games give us direct access to this lesson. In some of the games, like in life, you can run and gun and still be successful. But with the stupid game ‘The Cube,’ if you run at that puppy it will eat you up and spit you out.

Picture, if you will, that a PVC cube glares down at the group daring them to come forward and accumulate 26 points. The Cube is big and white, made of gleaming PVC pipe perched on top of a bucket like something from Millennium Park. Any slight push or graze by the group as they attempt to pass through the cube sends it tumbling to the ground. The consequence for that failure is that you lose all your points and the group must begin all over again.

Groups must plan in order to be successful at the Cube. Everyone needs to know when they are going and what they are going to do. Even if they don’t follow the exact plan, the discipline of planning supports the group’s success. That is an invaluable lesson when lived. Group planning works.

For more information about CMI's business planning process click here.